JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia is a failed state” – The Hill
“…. Putin is rapidly losing legitimacy …. The secret police are angry over being] blam[ed] … for the military fiasco. The generals are angry that the war is destroying the armed forces. The pro-war faction … blames him …. The pro-peace faction blames him …. Russia’s foreign allies are … losing … respect … for Putin. … [I]nitial enthusiasm for the war has visibly diminished. … [S]oldiers … are demoralized and blame the leadership …. An armed resistance movement appears to [have been] … actively fire-bombing draft boards and derailing trains. … Local elites … are demanding Putin’s resignation. With Putin’s announcement of a partial mobilization of reservists … thousands went to the streets and protested …. Over a thousand … have been arrested … [O]thers have bought one-way airline tickets or driven … to the nearest border. … [A] secret clause in Putin’s announcement foresees the drafting of up to a million …. The Russian army is increasingly refusing to fight …. Moscow has taken to enlisting senior citizens, teenage [military academy] graduates …, mercenaries and … criminals. … Two well-organized, well-funded private armies already exist … the Wagner Group … and … Kadyrovites …. The Kremlin … has begun forming non-Russian battalions …. With so many armed groups running around, with so much visible discontent, Russia is ripe for civil conflict, perhaps even civil war. ….”